Study aims to use ecstasy to treat PTSD in Canadian soldiers, RCMP

A group of American researchers hopes to win final approval this summer to launch a cutting edge and controversial study in Canada that uses the dance-floor drug ecstasy to treat patients with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

Clinical trials have already shown promising results in the U.S. and Europe. The Canadian pilot — which will include former RCMP officers, Canadian veterans and victims of sexual or physical assault as subjects — has received a green light from Health Canada for the drug source and study protocol design, but is awaiting final approval for pharmacy storage facilities and an import permit for the drug.

[start_gallery][end_gallery]RCMP pose with $5-million worth of ecstasy, which someone was trying to smuggle into the country. Though the drug is a banned substance in Canada, a U.S. researcher thinks it can be used to treat PTSD. CANADIAN PRESS/Tannis Toohey

Health Canada spokeswoman Leslie Meerburg said the proposed study would be the first in Canada to evaluate the therapeutic potential of MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy.)

MDMA, a synthetic, psychoactive drug similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline, is a controlled substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and is regulated as a restricted drug under the Food and Drug Regulations. Sponsors of clinical trials using drugs, including restricted ones like MDMA, must have authorization from Health Canada after thorough screening.

“In assessing requests for access to restricted drugs for research purposes, under the Food and Drug Regulations, Health Canada puts particular emphasis on security measures given the elevated potential health risk of restricted drugs and risk of their diversion to an illicit market or use,” Meerburg told iPolitics.

The study, sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), aims to show how MDMA can assist psychotherapy to help those suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. The study will focus on patients who have wrestled with symptoms for at least six months — and often many years or even decades — and have not responded to conventional pharmaceuticals or psychotherapy.

MAPS executive director and Harvard PhD Rick Doblin said tests done to date show the best results with the most difficult cases. MDMA reduces activity in the part of the brain which processes fear and increases activity in the area where we put things into context, allowing the PTSD patient to confront the traumatic incident that was previously overwhelming.

The Canadian study has been slow to win approval, and Doblin said trials have been dogged by controversy in the U.S. because MDMA is a notorious symbol of drug abuse.

“These are highly demonized drugs and governments around the world have spent hundreds of millions of dollars looking at their risks in how they work,” he told iPolitics in an interview. “But the fundamental problem with the drug war is that it attributes negative qualities to the drug independently of how it is used. What’s really true is that it determines if the drug is going to be therapeutic or used in a harmful way.”

It has been a tough go to demonstrate that a drug normally associated with rave parties and safety risks also has great benefits in a therapeutic research setting. Doblin describes Health Canada’s approval process as “rigorous, slow and exhaustive, but ultimately reasonable” given the politically charged nature of the study.

“All of those things we’re fine with — all we want is science over politics,” he said.

The Canadian pilot, which is expected to cost about $250,000 for 12 subjects, will be financed mostly through private donations as federal government dollars and grants don’t come easily. But Doblin is confident the millions required to turn the drug into a medicine will ultimately flow.

“We’re hoping it will loosen up over time as we have better evidence about safety and efficacy, as time goes by and the use of these drugs as symbolic politics will hopefully decline,” he said.

A fundraiser is planned for September in Vancouver, where the study will be carried out.